From an Alternet.org interview with “Students Against Sweatshops” author Liza Featherstone:
“Some of the more anarchist types are very critical of activists who don’t lead an alternative, anti-capitalist lifestyle (growing their own food, composting, making their own clothes, etc.). Others say that kind of self-sufficient life isn’t really conducive to building a movement because it’s very isolating, and takes up a lot of time.”
Ms. Featherstone makes an important point, albeit unintentionally. The market system that her activists so deplore is the very system that affords most of them the free time to try to destroy it. Thanks to the free market, we don’t have to make our own clothes, grow our own food, or spend 16 hours a day just trying to survive.
